In the end, Catlateral Damage is a small diversion that is enjoyable to play.

It may not have a ton of content for players looking for variation, but if you embrace what Score Rush Extended offers, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding enjoyment.

At first it’s a bit off-putting realizing that your tried and true strat doesn’t work 100% of the time. It’s also the sign of a solid tactical game that won’t grow stale too soon.

The Castle Game offers a decent amount of content and has a sense of polish to it. The enjoyment of the game increases because few problems arise as the game goes on.

My love for Odin Sphere Leifthrasir started to drop as the repetition took hold, but ultimately I’m still left feeling pretty good about my time with the game. I might be a little burned out on many of the bosses at this point, but it’s hard not to just get completely wrapped up in the game’s presentation and storytelling. I also really appreciate the game’s inclusion of a Classic Mode that allows for people to experience the kind of gameplay that Odin Sphere offered back on PS2.

Minecraft Story Mode adapts to the Telltale formula quite well and even though it doesn’t do much new, the complete series that contains episodes 1-8 is an enjoyable adventure, despite a slow start. I found the second half of the story more interesting than the first half, but the former half sets up the characters and that’s what makes the latter half so enjoyable.

For a well-crafted, enjoyable side-scrolling adventure, I’d recommend Adventures of Pip.

It is a clear improvement over F1 2015 with the re-introduction of key features such as career mode and an overlay of new features which serve the purpose of improving the quality and quantity of the single player and online multiplayer experiences, although it is still yet to evolve into the ultimate F1 package.

Overall the game does a really good job of creating a tense atmosphere without needing to rely on jump scares.

It’s a story that’s very much worth experiencing for yourself. I just wish playing the game was just as interesting.

If you like pinball or well-polished new ideas, Rollers of the Realm will be right up your alley.

Really, though, it’s a fun little game with wide appeal and a low price.

A Rose in the Twilight is a really interesting puzzle game that properly utilizes each character’s specific abilities and uses its aesthetic to highlight key points of interest while setting a specific mood. The way everything ties back into the narrative that the game is trying to tell is done really well and makes for a really enjoyable journey, through both the good and bad times that both Rose and giant share.

Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 features three solid entries into the Kingdom Hearts series and, while there’s plenty of setup for the future, what’s here is mostly fantastic. Back Cover might be the weak point of this collection, but even that is worth checking out if you’re really into the crazy lore in this series. Simply put, Kingdom Hearts in 60FPS is wonderful and the little taste of Kingdom Hearts 3 is even better than I had hoped.

As it stands, the game is a must-own if you have a consistent group of 3-4 players.

Overall, Shadwen is recommended to anyone who appreciates a challenging and thought provoking old-school stealth experience which even has a unique premise of time remaining still whenever your character is not moving with further time manipulation powers.

Surgeon Simulator used to be my go-to silly, cooperative, party-friendly game. I’m glad to add Goat Simulator to that list.

Control difficulties aside, Snake Pass is one of the most unique games I’ve played in a long time and can be incredibly rewarding. Successfully slithering and curling around bamboo and other obstacles feels really great and makes traversing the world a lot of fun. There are absolutely moments of frustration, but not enough to overshadow what is otherwise a really unique and fun adventure.

The first Chronicles entry isn’t perfect, but it’s a good starting point.

I like most of the songs on the track-list, but a lack of genre variety has left me wanting a little more. Even after one week of play I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be wanting to keep coming back to this one.

Despite some frustrating jailers I still really enjoyed most of my time spent with Furi. The combat is excellent and exploiting enemy weaknesses genuinely feels rewarding. Not every jailer fight is great and the intermission sequences should be shorter, but the highs greatly outweigh the lows on this one.

Overall, The Banner Saga is a welcome addition to the burgeoning PlayStation Network library.

Extreme Exorcism is a pleasant surprise and a very welcome addition to the local multiplayer revival.

Genso Wanderer is a really well made roguelike, it’s great about introducing new mechanics at a steady pace, and it’s pretty easy to get into – even if you have no prior knowledge of other Touhou Project games. Unfortunately, for as well made as the game is, the story proves to be the weak link here. It’s certainly present throughout the adventure, but the general structure makes for a journey that feels a little empty. It’s hard to care about many of these characters and, for the most part, the events unfolding around Gensokyo just serve to give more reasons to crawl through dungeons. A larger focus on gameplay isn’t all bad, but I certainly would have liked to see a better realized story as well. That said, after over fifty hours of dungeon crawling, I’m glad I took the time to investigate all of the weird incidents surrounding Gensokyo. It’s a game that’s very much worth persevering through each obstacle thrown your way, no matter how demoralizing each death might be.

Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is an excellent game. Instead of attempting to innovate, the game instead focuses on delivering a polished adventure with satisfying combat, an interesting world to explore, and lore that can naturally be uncovered by the player. There are loads of indie Metroidvanias out there, but Momodora is one that’s absolutely worth your time.

Overall, if you’re looking for a casual title on your Vita that offers some new ingredients to the match-3 formula, Azkend 2 may be for you. The hidden object sections are a natural addition to a touch-heavy game, and the core gameplay is challenging enough for pros and newcomers alike. The different game modes and power-up unlocks add variety to an already robust experience.

If you are a hardcore fan, or someone who is interested in becoming one, this is the game to buy.

My love for penguins is well known at this point and that alone made Waddle Home really enjoyable for me. As a puzzle game, it presents an interesting look at what you could do with VR and demonstrates why 3D audio and the ability to interact with a world is important, however, it doesn’t really expand upon its simple mechanics in enough ways to stay interesting. What’s there is cool (it being in VR certainly ensured that I was smiling throughout the whole game), but I’d really like to see Waddle Home do a bit more with what it offers.

In spite of any shortcomings it may have, Wayward Sky is very cool and the game presents a fantastic sense of scale in VR. The fortress is gigantic, there are plenty of opportunities to look around and take in the view from wherever you are in the game, and there’s especially a moment with a particular giant robot that really deserves to be seen for yourself.

Shantae: Risky’s Revenge is a great first impression on a series that I’ve been curious about for a while now. What it lacks in length it more than makes it up for in level design and precise controls.

Kung Fury is a lot of fun and it’s been a game that I’ve been excited to play during any downtime over the past couple days. I haven’t quite hit the top of the built-in leaderboards, but there’s always room for improvement.

A good value for $5 on the PSN. The game has a wide range of levels and is highly replayable, especially if you want to obtain all of the crowns for each level. If you are looking for a low-cost puzzle game, then Tennis in the Face is a good value.

Each adventure through Hand of Fate has allowed me to imagine myself journeying through many far off places, meeting different people, and overcoming any number of obstacles. Even in the face of many technical issues I’m so hooked that I can’t help but continue to come back for more with each passing day.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams surprised me. It’s a mechanically sound platformer that, considering the origins of the franchise, has managed to differentiate itself in a pretty big way. Simply put Giana Sisters now feels like one of the most unique platformers on the market.

If nothing else, for me, it’s refreshing to play a sports game that stays true to the sport while not taking itself too seriously.

Super Stardust Ultra is a classic which everyone deserves to give a try, but if you’ve played before, proceed with caution.

The Shantae series and its characters are always bursting with so much personality. These games are carefree, self-aware, and silly – in many ways an adventure with Shantae feels sort of like an old Saturday morning cartoon. Whenever I jump into a new Shantae game, I’m confident that I’m going to have a good time and that continues to be true with Half-Genie Hero.

Despite my issues with the order in which each film is presented I really enjoyed playing through abridged versions of the MCU.

Teslagrad gets a lot of mileage out of its mechanics, whether it’s through puzzles or boss fights.

I truly hope that more games attempt to give real world context in the same way that Never Alone does.

Fantastic overall presentation.

Mutant Mudds Super Challenge is designed specifically for anyone that’s itching for more, and Renegade Kid is successful in providing just that. This isn’t a full on sequel, and that’s okay, but rather a refined and far more difficult Mutant Mudds challenge. New bosses and 20 unlockable characters from popular indie games just serve to make Super Challenge that much more enticing.

The Chinese Room have created a compelling cast of characters with interesting stories that come together in some really cool ways throughout the game. The powerful soundtrack and beautiful landscape of Yaughton only help to make the whole experience even better.

Hot dog costumes, door-to-door trick-or-treating, a dystopian future, and plenty of bad candy corn jokes are all just a small piece of what makes Costume Quest 2 another worthy game that should grab your attention during the month of October.

It’s an interesting way to tell a story that doesn’t necessarily have one true conclusion.

At the end of the day Salt and Sanctuary is a successful take on From Software’s Souls series, something I can’t get enough of, and it’s nice to see a different developer’s take on this style of game.

With its massive amount of modes and options its content is worth the asking price.

This is the kind of game you either instantly fall in love with or stare at in amazement. Surgeon Simulator A&E is a great port of the original title and brings more good new features than bad.

The only real drawbacks are that the game never really gets all that challenging and it’s ultimately a bit short. Of course quality over quantity is what’s important and for the most part everything in Super Exploding Zoo is pretty great.

BlazeRush is a package of simple, frenetic fun.

In general, the game is pretty good about introducing new characters/abilities at a steady pace to keep things interesting. That said, the moments where it’s just Shu can get pretty dull once you’ve had new abilities given and taken away in each world. What’s here is enjoyable enough, though, and the collectibles and time trials make for a decent incentive to spend just a bit more time with Shu, even after the credits.

I wasn’t really captivated by what I played in the end. The beautiful setting of the Wyoming forest and the dialogue between you and Delilah kept me wanting to progress the story, but it ended up falling flat at its conclusion.

Overall, Lost Sea is a good amount of fun. It would likely be great for players who don’t take kindly to constant barrages of enemies, branching skill trees, and other relatively complex gameplay hurdles.

The story kept me going and the overall fun of the puzzles made the game an amusing 3 hour treat which is well worth the money.

The UI doesn’t look nearly as polished as the rest of the game. The game stalled on my a couple of times; once during a boss fight where I had to wait until the entire screen was engulfed in flames, and once in the Character Sheet screen where I had to close the game to get back to playing it. That being said, the game as a whole is a fun experience.

Ultratron isn’t anything that will blow your mind, but it does work for those wanting to achieve high scores and chase leaderboards with the community. It only offers one mode, but there is enough variety in the weapons and upgrades that should keep players intrigued for a while. The addition of Cross-Save support doesn’t hurt either.

At this point, around 20-30 hours in, I might have spent more time watching Just Cause 3‘s loading screens than playing some of the smaller indie games that have released on the PlayStation Network.

For a couple of hours (or about 240 minutes) of throwback scorechasing with an initially easy access point, buy Minutes.

Lichtspeer has a pretty great sense of humor and sticks proudly to its weird concoction of Germanic x Futuristic x LSD influence. It makes a strong first impression that unfortunately doesn’t carry through to the end. Aside from boss fights, things get pretty repetitive about midway through and, for me, never really picked up. I still had a decent time with the game, and I absolutely love its presentation, it just doesn’t really do enough to keep me wanting to come back.

That said I absolutely recommend setting aside the five hours it’ll take to unlock the four truths and to seek out the true ending. The narrative and how it’s told is really interesting and is absolutely worth seeing.

Klaus isn’t perfect by any means, but is a fun puzzle-platformer that challenges the player without making it feel too easy, and at the same time not making it too frustrating.

I may not feel as strongly about Enigmatis as I’d hoped, but it still presents much of what I was hoping to find when I started it up. There’s plenty of hidden object scenes, the unique context specific puzzles are still generally pretty fun to solve, and the evidence wall is a neat inclusion. It should also be stated that the game just looks really nice, it’s clear that a good deal of effort went into the detail of every scene. Unfortunately, the story and characters weren’t quite what I was hoping for.

At $5, Actual Sunlight is affordable, but it takes only about an hour and a half to explore and see everything the game has to offer.

Kay seemed to be overlooked back in the day of 3D platforming mascots, but Legend of Kay Anniversary makes a case for Kay to be on a level with the likes of Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter.

So if you are looking for good music/rhythm game with a wide range of songs and a bit of challenge, check out Superbeat: Xonic.

I found the experience about as thrilling as a sudoku book.

If you want a laid-back, relaxing experience full of discovery in a beautiful but haunting world, this game’s for you.

If you’re itching for an abstractly touching adventure game, spring for MonsterBag. There aren’t many other options for this genre on the Vita.

It’s not as colorful or as big as the first entry, but Rubble Without a Cause still contains much of what I loved about A Knight to Remember. There’s great characters, puzzles, some cool fairy-tale references, and most importantly there’s just a lot of heart.

Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut offers some unique puzzles with an intriguing story.

Excellent presentation, decent puzzling.

Each turn demands perfection, and if you are not refilling on food and repairing your hull, your ship just isn’t going to make it. Haven’t met such an unforgiving game in some time, things start out difficult and they only get worse (I lost by turn 3 sometimes). Watch some gameplay videos before jumping into this one.

Dear Esther isn’t a groundbreaking experience, but it did help pioneer more games in its genre. It will take you a little under 2 hours to complete the game’s four main areas, but it is a game that you might want to play again upon completing it to further understand its plot. The Director’s Commentary will add another playthrough for those looking for an interesting background on how the game was created and its inspirations.

Soldner X-2 was an enjoyable experience, even if it was short. The gameplay is fun and the adaptive difficulty really makes the game great.

Futuridium EP Deluxe is an easily forgettable title that can only be recommended to people who want an extreme challenge or die-hard fans of space shooters and/or puzzle games. If that’s not you, then I’d take a pass.

Overally, Type: Rider felt like a relatively basic platformer. The educational aspect of the game falls just short of being meaningfully employed; instead feeling more like wrapping paper. I’d recommend it if you or someone you know is into fonts and/or history, but otherwise it doesn’t truly standout.

Personally it’s still tough to justify the $20 price tag, but the new features make the price a little more reasonable. However, if you are looking for a game to play with others who normally don’t play games, but love baseball, give this a look.

The game is a decent racer and is meant to be played locally with friends. It won’t take long to complete all the game has to offer, so your mileage with the game really depends on how much you play with friends. Track design is confusing and isn’t very straight forward, but after some trial and error, you’ll be on the right path.

Resident Evil 0 HD is good, but I fear its lasting impression will be one of annoyance. For as interesting as the character-swap mechanic is I just can’t get over how tedious the act of playing the game can be. The over abundance of backtracking makes this one of the only Resident Evil games that I likely won’t be playing again.

Your enjoyment of Scram Kitty DX will likely come down to how you feel about the controls.

Depending on how you feel about the ability to simulate games, it is a tough sell for players of last year’s game to upgrade, but if this is your first R.B.I. Baseball game, this is the one to get.

On the gameplay side, the camera can be tough to maneuver, and platforming sections can be frustrating. However, the game works as a third-person action RPG with the skill trees, items and secrets.

A horror game with a controllable toddler is a fantastic concept. Unfortunately Among the Sleep doesn’t quite go all the way with it. There’s a lot of promise early on with the first level, but things slowly fizzle out towards the end. Ultimately Among the Sleep didn’t leave the impact I was hoping for, but instead feels like a missed opportunity.

Kick & Fennick is the kind of game that I was ready to put down about a chapter before things wrapped up. It’s not a bad game, I’m mostly positive on it, but it took too long to capture my attention.

Slender to me always demonstrates why it’s so scary to feel like someone or something is watching you. I think Slenderman The Arrival succeeds in doing that. At the same time I think the gameplay and story could be more interesting.

In the end, Table Top Racing: World Tour is a serviceable combat racing game.

Poncho’s world is colorful, with visual depth and great music that help bring it to life. Unfortunately the platforming doesn’t live up to its potential.

Lifeless Planet isn’t necessarily an experience that is needed to be had, but if you do journey to the planet, there is some good to be found.

The daily-ish galactic challenges are fun for a while (and help with pins), but they start to repeat after a week or so, losing their luster.

Overall, Dengeki Bunko feels like a fighting game port from the early 2000’s. It just doesn’t feel like a full package compared to other games in the genre that have come out in the last few years.

Overall, Demetrios is a well-crafted game with a good deal of content. If you’re into Adventure games and/or toilet humor, you’ll find something well worth playing in Demetrios. It’s not quite as crude as, say, Leisure Suit Larry, but it’s certainly not as lighthearted as other Adventure games on the market. If you’re not into Adventure games, I don’t see this as being the game to change your opinion. While it is well written and chock-full of humorous quips, its core systems do little to separate it from or elevate within the dated genre.

In theory, I love what Moon Hunters is going for. The art, the music, and the overall style of the game are all superb. As a narrative experiment, it works decently. My friends and I used to gather around the lunch table and talk about our epic Everquest adventures or even the crazy Starcraft matches we had the nights before. Real stories do arise from playing games. Moon Hunters writes those stories down for the player. The problem is, they seem a bit blown out of proportion relative to the actual experiences I had with the game. Running around sections of nothing is fine in theory – a barren wasteland peppered with scared, lost souls – but dull in practice.

It should of course be noted that the original cast has returned to reprise their roles and, considering how long it’s been, they all deliver great performances. The same level of quality is true for the writing and jokes throughout the game. It’s clear Double Fine still has a firm grasp of the world of Psychonauts and its characters. So, while Rhombus of Ruin isn’t the most mind-bending VR adventure out there, it’s still good to be back with these characters. I still laughed and appreciated some of the smaller details present throughout the game, it’s just hard to not want a little more out of it by the end.

It’s not a bad game at all but it doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from countless other physics-platformers. Because of the visual style and tight controls, it’s a game that doesn’t overstay its welcome and acts as proof that there are mobile games worth your time.

The ending isn’t completely satisfying, but as a pilot episode of an ongoing series I’m totally on-board to see what comes next.

PaRappa the Rapper Remastered doesn’t take long to get through, if the fourth stage goes smoothly for you. Songs only take a few minutes to complete and sometimes the cutscenes seem longer than the gameplay. After you complete the game and finish each stage with a “Cool” rating, there isn’t much else to keep you around other than a few miscellaneous trophies if that interests you. PaRappa the Rapper Remastered is beautiful to look at, and the soundtrack is catchy enough that I’ll be listening to these tunes for some time.

I didn’t like Toren as much as I was hoping to, but there’s still some pretty neat ideas that make it worth checking out.

Touhou Double Focus shows a decent amount of promise with its reliance on character swapping and willingness to just be weird. That said, stiff controls and frustrating hitboxes certainly bring the overall game down quite a bit. Still, Double Focus has a lot of personality and I had a good time seeing it through to the end. It’s not as strong as Touhou Genso Wanderer, but still a decent enough adventure, if a bit rough around the edges.